The Influence of Minority Status on In-Group Liking from a Power Relations Perspective: A Replication Study with Chinese Sample

This study constitutes a systematic conceptual replication and extension of Study 4 from “Being in the Minority Boosts In-Group Love: Explanations and Boundary Conditions.” The original research, based on Western individualist samples, proposed that minority status enhances in-group liking through increased perceived distinctiveness, belongingness, and expected cooperation. However, the cultural generalizability, ecological validity, and the role of intergroup power dynamics in real-world contexts remain underexplored. To address these gaps, the present study is conducted within a Chinese collectivist cultural context with the following objectives: first, to examine whether the “minority-boosts-in-group-love” effect persists in a collectivist setting and to identify its cultural boundaries; second, to introduce “power relations” as a central moderating variable, simulating real-world scenarios where minority groups may hold higher, equal, or lower power, thereby investigating how power structures shape group identification dynamics; third, to enhance experimental realism and reduce demand characteristics through methodological improvements, such as embedding a film-viewing task and masked measures. The research employs a 2 (group size: minority vs. majority) × 2 (target: in-group vs. out-group) × 3 (power relations: minority higher, equal, lower) mixed design. A diverse sample will be recruited across multiple regions in China, and variables including in-group liking, distinctiveness, belongingness, and expected cooperation will be measured to analyze the pathways through which power influences group identification. Anticipated outcomes include: first, a potentially attenuated original effect in the Chinese sample, supporting the cultural moderation hypothesis; second, a significant moderating role of power relations, wherein higher minority power weakens the enhancement of in-group liking, whereas lower power strengthens it; third, mediation analyses are expected to reveal that belongingness and expected cooperation play more prominent roles under low-power conditions, while distinctiveness may remain relatively salient under high-power conditions. This study not only provides cross-cultural validation and a power-based extension of Optimal Distinctiveness Theory but also offers evidence-based implications for organizational management, team integration, and intergroup policy design.